A second try at Age of Ultron
by iColor With Crayons
Summary: Age of Ultron didn't live up to my expectations and thus, a child was born. Clintasha, Pepperoni, and whatever Thor&Jane are called these days can be found here. Everyone ends up mostly okay because I am in deep denial. I'm awful at summaries and I am sincerely sorry about that. Just give it a try and we'll go from there. *Maybe don't read if you haven't seen the movie yet.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Pietro, where are we going?" Wanda demanded as her brother gathered her in his arms and geared up to run.

Pietro looked down at Wanda in surprise. They had just seen half of their village burned to the ground by outsiders looking for them. They were no longer protected in the remote area they had tried to escape to. They were once again in danger.

"Somewhere safe." He muttered, affording Wanda a reassuring smile before taking off running.

* * *

"Bruce, think you can stitch Barton up? He's bleeding all over his suit." Tony complained on the flight back from the Avengers' latest recovery mission. Bruce looked up from where he had been resting in surprise.

Clint snorted loudly from across the jet. "Don't worry, Stark. I'll have the precious costume dry-cleaned tomorrow." He turned to look at Natasha with an amused smile. "Who put him in charge of uniforms, again?"

"He put himself in charge of it." Natasha answered with an eye roll. "Which is probably why Steve and I are stuck with spandex."

"It isn't _spandex_," Tony groaned in an agitated tone, "It's a special synthetic material fabricated from -"

"Nat, don't antagonize him. Tony, the suits are great. Clint, you should get stitched up when we get back to the tower. Dr. Banner, do you think that you'll be up for the job?" Steve questioned, pacing the length of the plane and looking around at all of his teammates.

"I can stitch him up. I've been doing it for years." Natasha interjected with a small smirk in Clint's direction. Clint smiled back sheepishly.

"Hey, can we just take a minute to celebrate the fact that our search is over? We finally got the scepter. If that's not a reason to go out for drinks, I don't know what is." Tony remarked, looking around expectantly. Everyone exchanged bemused looks before rolling their eyes and shaking their heads.

"Drinking...yeah...not the best idea for me." Bruce mumbled.

"I'm going to have to side with Bruce on this one; drinking after stitches is a mistake I'm not particularly eager to make again." Clint added.

"Especially not after what happened in Budapest." Natasha agreed.

"I wouldn't mind passing on drinking. I never get drunk anyway." Steve said with a shrug.

Tony let out an irritated noise and looked at Thor for some sort of ruling. Thor looked puzzled.

"No ale tonight?" The demigod sounded disappointed.

"That's what they're telling us, Hammertime." Tony confirmed dismally.

"Well, you guys could drink," Steve said, "I'm not going to stop you. Hey, I know. There's this great pizza place in Brooklyn. Buck and I used to -" Steve suddenly became very quiet. Everyone else looked at each other uncomfortably.

Steve had been searching for Bucky Barnes for months now. Tony and Bruce had tried to help him by using every tracking device accessible, but none of it helped. Bucky didn't want to be found. Steve blamed himself for that. It had been tormenting him for months now.

"Do they serve drinks?" Tony asked in an effort to distract Steve.

Steve's eyes shifted from the ground to Tony's face. He was momentarily surprised by the question but nodded his head after a few seconds.

"Drinks? Oh, uh, yeah. Well, the serve beer. I don't know if they'll have any of your fancy margaritas or martinis or whatever it is that you drink." Steve responded. His mouth crooked into a smile and his nose wrinkled a bit in an effort to look disgusted by Tony's drink preferences. Tony pretended to scowl.

"Beer is fine. Uh, Nat, how far out are we?"

"About five minutes. Don't worry boys, we'll be eating pizza before you can say -"

* * *

"Cheese," Steve decided, handing the waitress his menu and looking around the small pizza shop curiously, "Thank you."

"_Cheese_? Where's your sense of adventure, Cap?" Tony mocked as the waitress walked away to place their orders.

"I think I've had enough adventure for one lifetime. Cheese is nice. It's familiar." Steve responded contently.

"I don't really think it matters what you order here," Clint proclaimed from across the table, his mouth full of the free bread they had been given the second they were seated, "If their pizza is even half as good as their bread, it's gonna be the best pizza I've ever tasted."

"Better than Pete's?" Natasha looked at Clint in surprise.

Clint swallowed his mouthful of bread and nodded. "Better than Pete's."

"Wow." Natasha's eyebrows raised. "That's high praise coming from him."

"Glad you like it, Clint." Steve chuckled.

"So Thor, what are you going to do with the scepter now that you've gotten it back from Hydra?" Bruce asked Thor, who was already on his fifth frosty mug of beer.

"I will take it back to Asgard where Odin will guard it. I do not believe that it will cause Earth or any other realm any trouble now that Loki - rest his soul - has perished." Thor answered immediately.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not going to take it back tonight, are you? I just started a scan on the thing back at the tower. I was hoping that I'd be able to find out a little bit more about it. I mean, Hydra has been using the tesseract's powers to kick our asses for years. I just want to know how it works." Tony said from across the table.

Thor looked at Tony for a moment. "How long will your scan take?"

Tony looked at Bruce and shrugged. Bruce shrugged back.

"About three days, give or take." The billionaire answered.

"Very well," Thor allowed, "In three days' time I will return the scepter to Asgard. Until then it is in your care. I trust that you and Dr. Banner will behave wisely."

"Don't we always?" Tony asked.

Thor looked skeptical.

"I'll keep an eye on things." Bruce assured him.

Thor relaxed.

The Avengers wound up occupying the small pizza shop for about two hours. In that time, Steve ate three large cheese pizzas, Thor drank twenty-four mugs of beer, Tony drank ten mugs of beer and soon found himself slumped over under the table, Clint ate four baskets of bread, Bruce almost dialed 911 seven times, and Natasha called them all idiots forty-eight times. There was no telling how many autographs they each signed in those two hours. Well, Clint knew how many autographs he signed. Five. No one seemed to recognize him. He was extremely offended by that.

"s'prolly 'cause you're always up on some rooftop shootin' arrows." Tony rationed drunkenly as they walked back towards Stark Towers.

"You fight in a metal can the whole time." Clint grumbled.

"Genius, playboy, philanthropianist," Tony drawled.

"Philanthropianist?" Bruce echoed in an amused tone.

"Don't antagonize him, he's drunk." Steve chuckled.

"Yes, you mortals seem to have a much lower tolerance for alcohol." Thor agreed smugly, tossing his hammer up and down as they walked through the darkened city streets.

"No I dun'. Watch _this_." Tony slurred, lurching over in Thor's direction and attempting to intercept his hammer. He successfully caught the handle but was immediately dragged down onto the ground. There was a dull thud as he fell onto the pavement face-first.

"Ow." He murmured, his voice muffled by the sidewalk.

"Jesus Tony, you'd think that of all people, you could hold your drinks. Come on, get up." Clint said, walking over to Tony and attempting to lift the hammer. He was surprised to realize that it would not move. "What the hell is wrong with this thing, man?"

Thor shrugged with a smug grin. "You are not worthy."

"Is that how it works?" Bruce wondered, walking over to where Clint and Tony were struggling with the hammer and eying it curiously. "You only get to lift it if you're worthy?"

"Yes. And it would seem that I am the only one who is." Thor answered.

"Give it a try, Bananner_."_ Tony insisted, struggling to his feet and pointing at the hammer a bit emphatically.

"No, that's okay, I really don't…"

"Do it." Tony demanded.

Bruce sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I think we already know the answer to this question, though."

Sure enough, he gripped the handle of the hammer, pulled upwards and did not have any results. Tony hooted with laughter. Clint scowled. Thor continued to grin proudly.

"Stebe. Stebe, you're worthy. Worthiest guy I ever know. Do it." Tony said, stumbling over to Steve and attempting to push him in the direction of the hammer. Steve let out a loud sigh.

"This isn't really a question I want answered." He grumbled.

"_Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe, Stebe_." Tony chanted as Steve approached the hammer. Steve couldn't help but laugh.

He ducked down at gripped the handle of the hammer as Tony, Clint, and Bruce had before him. Unlike the three men before him, the hammer began to move under his hands. It was light - surprisingly light.

Steve glanced up and saw the panicked look on Thor's face. The hammer was Thor's thing. It was one of the reasons he continued to fight for justice. Steve didn't feel quite right about taking that away from him.

Steve also saw the amused smirk settling on Natasha's face. She was obviously enjoying Thor's momentary panic. Steve cast her a tiny smirk of his own before pretending to struggle with the hammer. After a few seconds of pretending, he stood upright and shook his head.

"Guess I'm only slightly worthy." He sighed.

"Too bad." Thor replied, his tone soaked with relief.

"If you're not even worthy, maybe Thor should be the one leading the Avengers." Clint suggested to Thor. Thor nodded his head thoughtfully and followed Clint down the street to discuss his potential leadership.

"I thought you were special, Stebe." Tony complained as he struggled to follow after Clint and Thor. Steve just laughed, took one of Tony's arms and draped it over his shoulder in order to help the hopelessly drunk billionaire back to the tower.

"Don't take it too personally, Steve. There's got to be some kind of physics to it." Bruce said thoughtfully.

"Hey, Thor!" Natasha called from behind the group of men. "You forgot your hammer."

Thor spun around and raised his hand to summon Mjolnir. That turned out to be completely unnecessary. Natasha was already walking towards him, tossing the hammer up and down casually as Thor had done just a few minutes ago. She made it look as though it weighed no more than a feather. All of the men stared at her in complete awe. She just smiled right back at them.

* * *

"Bruce! Bruce, the scan is done!" Tony hollered the moment the Avengers returned to the tower. Bruce let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes before wandering up to the lab where Tony was running around.

"Tony, don't you think that we should wait until morning to look at the scan?" He asked.

"No time. If we're gonna make this thing work, we've got to start right now." Tony answered, rushing around the lab frantically. Bruce raised an eyebrow at him.

"Start _what_ right now?"

"Ultron!"

"Ultron? Tony, that was just a fantasy…"

Well, maybe _fantasy_ was the wrong world. It was just a discussion they'd had when Tony created his suits. A robot with a working mind. Something that could guard prisons, do police work without any type of bias, and serve in military positions that were too dangerous for humans. It was a pipe dream.

"But what if the fantasy could become a _reality_?" Tony persisted, rushing over to Bruce's side holding up two holographic blueprints. "This is JARVIS' program. It looks normal, right? Now look at what I pulled off of the scepter." Tony displayed both of the holograms side by side.

"That's amazing," Bruce whispered. "It almost looks like it's…"

"Thinking. I know. Bruce, this could be the key to Ultron. We take this mainframe, stick it in one of the suits...we could have the ultimate protector at our fingertips." Tony rambled, bouncing up and down on the heels of his feet excitedly. He seemed to sober up the minute he saw the blueprints.

"What's Ultron?" Steve asked as he walked into the lab. The rest of the Avengers followed him.

Tony looked at Steve and let out an annoyed little huff. Still, he hastened to explain. "Ultron could be a program. We'd stick it in a suit and send it off to do our dirty work. It could protect us. Save us. It could be the final step to stop the fighting. That's what all of this is for, isn't it? We're fighting to stop the fighting. We could end it all _today_."

"Artificial intelligence." Natasha clarified.

"Yes." Bruce nodded.

"Artificial intelligence? I don't know, Tony. That sounds awfully…" Steve objected, running a nervous hand through his hair.

"No, it isn't! Look at the schematics!" Tony insisted, running over to one of his many dry erase boards and beginning to rant and ramble about how Ultron might work. While he was doing this, Steve slipped over to Bruce's side.

"Would, uh, would this program be able to work on missing persons cases?" The super soldier questioned awkwardly.

Bruce smiled at Steve good-naturedly. "If we were to get Ultron to work, he would be a useful tool to find Bucky. We're going to do everything we can to find him, Steve. You know that."

"I know." Steve agreed with a small smile. "Sometimes I just feel like I'm not doing enough. Like I'm letting him down." His smile faded. Natasha noticed.

"Why don't we talk about it in the morning?" She suggested. "Thor is leaving the scepter here for three days, right?" Natasha looked at Thor, who nodded. "Good. You boys go to bed; we'll talk about your robot army when you're all sobered up."

* * *

_**Okay so sue me - I'm not exactly satisfied with Age of Ultron as is. Instead of whining and moaning about what could've been, I'm just making my own version and sinking deep down into the depths of denial. Please feel free to join me. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but it's always a fun one with these guys. **_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Why did you invite _him_?" Tony complained the next morning. He glowered at Nicholas J. Fury, who was sitting on his couch and staring at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, are robot armies not under my job description?" Fury countered snidely.

"You guys keep saying robot _armies_," Steve remarked, shifting from one foot to another. "I thought that you were just talking about putting artificial intelligence in one robot. I don't know if we should be considering an army…"

"The power of the tesseract is strong. I do not think it wise to spread its powers on such a grand scale." Thor contributed.

"Hold on there, guys." Bruce interjected, holding up his hands with a small smile. "Nobody is building a robot army right now. Tony and I would just work on a prototype. We'd test it out for a few years before we'd expand the program."

"A few years, a few months…" Tony trailed off with a shrug. Bruce looked at him and shook his head sternly. Now was not the time to propose an accelerated Ultron program.

"But there would only be one?" Steve clarified firmly.

"There would only be one." Bruce confirmed.

"How are we monitoring Ultron in its early stages?" A quiet yet eager voice came from behind Thor. Thor stepped aside to reveal Jane Foster. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm sorry, who invited you?" Tony questioned, his eyebrows furrowing.

"I did." Thor growled. "Once you spoke of working on the tesseract, I asked Jane Foster to assist you and Dr. Banner."

"That's actually not a bad idea. She has much more experience with these Asgardian stones than we do." Bruce remarked, hoping to avoid a conflict between Tony and Thor.

"She's an _astrophysicist_." Tony reminded Bruce in a disgusted tone.

"And you're an arms dealer. I guess we all have room for a hobby or two." Jane stated, folding her arms across her chest.

"Jane Foster will work on the project or I will take the tesseract back to Asgard immediately." Thor insisted.

"Fine." Tony grumbled as Jane wandered over to the lab. "And for the record, I was not an arms dealer. I just owned a company that sold a few weapons."

"_A few weapons_," Rhodey snickered from the corner. "He supplied the entire army for years."

Tony let out a loud sigh and turned around to look at his best friend. "What are you doing...no. You know what, where's Pepper? Every since she moved in, the security around here has really gone downhill. Is there anybody else here that isn't in the Avengers program?"

Sam Wilson raised his hand and waved at Tony. "Hey, Stark. Steve invited me."

"Of course he did."

"And Darcy is probably going to come back when her class is over. She usually helps me organize my charts and data." Jane added.

"Naturally."

"Tony, this isn't just your house anymore. This is the Avengers Tower." Steve reminded Tony.

"They're not Avengers."

"I could be." Sam objected indignantly.

"But you aren't." Tony bickered.

"Tony. Sam." Steve interrupted sternly. "This is the Avengers Tower. Guests of the Avengers - any of them - are welcome."

Tony rolled his eyes. "When did we make that rule?"

"Just now."

"Ah, Tony. We only have about two days and thirteen hours left to fit the tesseract's mainframe into one of your suits. Do you really want to spend that time arguing with Steve?" Bruce asked quietly.

"No." Tony allowed, his jaw tensing slightly. "But this isn't over Wilson, do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Stark." Sam grinned. Tony smirked back before following Bruce and Jane towards the lab.

"He seems to be doing a lot better these days." Natasha remarked as they watched him through the glass walls of the tower.

"Yeah," Steve agreed thoughtfully, "I think that spending time with Dr. Banner has helped him work through some of the things that happened in New York."

"I like to think that I might've had something to do with it, too." Pepper remarked as she walked through the front door.

"Oh, uh, no, yeah, you've definitely done a lot too, I was just saying…"

Pepper laughed. "It's okay, Steve. I know what you meant. Having you all close by has really helped him. He still has nightmares every once in a while, but he's working through it. I think that trip to Asgard was a great idea, Thor." Thor beamed at Pepper's recognition.

"I think I might have helped, too." Sam reminded the rest of the room loudly. "He joined my PTSD group. I coached him through twenty panic attacks. Most of them were at three in the damn morning."

"No one likes a glory hound, Sam." Steve taunted, casting Sam a lopsided grin.

"Really? That's rich coming from you, Captain Self-Righteous. Remind me again, who gave a ten minute speech to S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of just running in there and shooting up the bad guys in the first place?" Sam countered, punching Steve's shoulder.

"Oh, yeah. I never got to hear the full story of what happened when you guys attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. Every time Nat tries to tell me, she always ends up saying 'you just have to hear Steve tell it'. So what happened in D.C., Rogers?" Clint asked, leaning back against the couch and watching Steve expectantly.

Steve glared at Natasha. Natasha just smiled back at him.

"It wasn't really that good of a speech, I just said -"

"No, I want the _whole_ story. Not just the speech." Clint argued.

"Please tell him where you hid the flash drive. That's my absolute favorite part of the entire story." Natasha laughed.

Steve scowled. "Fine, but only if Thor finally tells us what the hell happened up on Asgard."

Tony's head popped out of the lab. "Steve Rogers, such language from an American hero!"

"Can it, Stark." Steve grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"I just want to make sure that the Star Spangled Man With a Plan is being the great man that my dad knew he could be." Tony called before returning to the lab.

"Asshole." Steve muttered under his breath.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury taunted.

"You can't say that to him, he's an _orphan_!" Sam objected in a scandalized tone.

Steve tried to scowl but wound up laughing. It was difficult to get annoyed by everyone's teasing when it felt so much like belonging to a family. For the first time in sixty years, Steve felt like he was home. He just wished that Bucky was there to enjoy it with him.

"Hey, hey. I think we're getting distracted. Rogers still has to tell me about his Hell Week. Especially the part involving hiding the flash drive." Clint reminded everyone with an amused grin.

"Hell Week?" Steve echoed curiously. Realizing that there was likely going to be yet another conversation before he heard the flash drive story, Clint groaned and slumped in his seat.

"Yes, Hell Week. I named it myself. I thought that it was pretty fitting for the week that S.H.I.E.L.D. became a war zone, Thor brought more aliens to Earth, and Tony stopped the president from getting blown to hell at a dock." Fury explained.

"I did not bring Malekith to Earth. He sought to bring the universe as we know it to complete darkness. The convergence made staying on Asgard difficult." Thor objected. Steve looked at the demigod as though he had grown five heads.

"Aliens were here again?" He demanded.

"Yeah, man. You didn't know? Even I knew." Sam said.

"How did you know?"

"I own a TV."

Steve let out a loud sigh. "Why didn't you tell us when it was happening?"

"I would've, but we didn't exactly have a lot of time for conversation that week. I just assumed that you knew. Nat did." Sam responded. Steve turned to look at Natasha. Natasha smiled at him awkwardly.

"I think that I'm going to check on something outside. You know, the air quality in New York is just…" She slipped out of the room before fully explaining her ridiculous excuse. Steve glared after her.

"Go on, then. Let's hear the flash drive story." Clint prompted for the umpteenth thing.

Steve let out an annoyed huff. "Fine. Look, I don't have as much experience with espionage as you and Nat do, so when Fury gave me a flash drive and told me to keep it safe, I didn't know what to do with it. I was in the hospital, I was surrounded by Hydra agents, and there was nowhere to go. The only thing nearby was a vending machine and it looked like a flash drive would be a subtle thing to hide behind a few sticks of gum…"

By the time Steve finished justifying hiding a top secret flash drive in a public vending machine, the group was roaring with laughter. Even Rhodey, who tended to side with Steve, couldn't help but laugh. Steve's face was bright red. In an effort to save some face, he then demanded that Thor tell the entire story of his Hell Week experience.

So it went for the next hour or so. Thor shared his Hell Week story, Steve shared a bit more of his, and Pepper shared the parts of Tony's that Tony had conveniently left out. By the time they finished, everybody's faces were flushed with laughter. It seemed strange for them to bond over things that normal people might consider tragic, but then, they had never been normal people. That was why they were able to tolerate each others' company as well as they did. That was why they had formed their own little abnormal family.

"Think they're done up there?" Rhodey wondered, glancing up at where Tony, Bruce, and Jane were still struggling with one of Tony's suits. "I want to ask Jane about what it was like chasing Malekith all over England in rainboots."

Before anyone could even think about disturbing the scientists at work, Natasha burst into the room. Her face was ruddy, her breathing was short and choppy, and her eyes were frenzied. Steve and Clint immediately leapt out of their seats.

"Guys. We've got a problem."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"What the hell are they?" Steve asked as soon as he caught side of the problem. There was a young man - possibly just a boy - with startling white hair who seemed to be moving too quickly to be seen. With him was a young woman - she looked about the same age as he was - with black hair and blood red eyes. She had encased herself in a cloud of red energy. None of the Avengers had ever seen anything like them.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff." Natasha explained hastily. "The twins. They're usually quiet; in the past they were persecuted - mostly for their powers - but a few years ago they found a small village to live in. This is the first I'm hearing about them since. Something must have set them off."

"Think it was Hydra?" Steve questioned.

"Couldn't have been," Clint called from across the room, where he was jamming as many arrows as he could fit in his quiver. "Hydra's a Nazi organization, isn't it? The twins are Roma/Jewish. Even if Hydra wanted to take them, I doubt they've forgiven Hydra for what happened to their family."

"What are their intentions?" Thor asked.

"I don't know. They've never bothered the city before. Something's got to be wrong. We need to get out there and find out what it is. Tony, Bruce, we've got a situation. Code green." Natasha hollered.

"_Shit_," Tony hissed, looking around the lab a bit frantically. They had been so close to getting Ultron up and running.

"Come on, Tony; there's no time to worry about it now. Jane, are you staying here?" Bruce asked.

"She is not. Jane, you are to go with Pepper to a safety zone." Thor responded, entering the lab and wrapping an arm around Jane's waist protectively. Jane glared up at him.

"Thor, I can't leave. We're in the middle of something incredible here." She protested.

"And there is something dangerous out there. Your life is more important than a machine, Jane." Thor rationed.

"It's fine, I've got this. JARVIS, keep an eye on Ultron. Give me any updates you've got, alright buddy?" Tony called out as he slipped into the Iron Man suit.

"Yes, sir." JARVIS agreed.

"There. Ultron is taken care of. Thor, I'll take Jane and Pepper to the other side of the city. They should be safe there. You get down there and see what Thing One and Thing Two want." Tony instructed, leading Jane towards the launch pad at the top of the tower while Thor and Bruce ran downstairs.

Once Jane and Pepper had been placed out of harm's way, the Avengers fanned out in an effort to find the twins. It didn't take them very long. Tony wandered behind a Taco Bell and was immediately transported to a different place.

He was in the wormhole again, but this time, he wasn't alone. They were all there, floating on some kind of meteor. Steve, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, Clint, Rhodey, Sam, Pepper…

And they were all dead.

"No...NO!" Tony screamed, sinking to his knees and clutching at Pepper.

He couldn't do this without her. He couldn't do anything without her. He couldn't do anything without any of them, for that matter. He needed his family. Without them he would just…

Pepper suddenly gasped, gulping down short and shaky breaths. Tony looked down at her hopefully.

"Why didn't you help us?" Pepper whimpered, her voice weak. Tony's blood turned to ice in his veins.

"Help you? Honey, I don't -"

"You could have stopped this. We didn't want to go. I didn't want to go. You should have saved us."

"Pep, please -"

Pepper took a few much shuddery breaths before collapsing in Tony's arms.

"Tony…" That was Steve's voice. Tony looked around for Steve. Steve had disappeared. Where had he gone? His corpse had been right there…

"Tony!"

Tony was snapped back into reality. He was outside of the wormhole and Steve was alive. The super soldier was crouched down next to him. Tony looked at him with wild eyes. Steve placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and forced a smile.

"You alright?" Steve asked.

Tony was struggling to get enough air in his lungs. He shook his head. "I can't...I don't…JARVIS, run a scan. I think I'm having a heart attack."

"Sam, I need you over here." Steve barked into his earpiece.

"Now?" Sam asked incredulously.

"_Now_." Steve insisted.

"JARVIS? JARVIS. Something is wrong; JARVIS isn't responding." Tony rasped.

"What's up? Why did you - Tony, are you okay?" Sam questioned breathlessly as soon as he got to where Tony and Steve were crouched down on the ground.

"The girl got to him. I don't know what she did, but he seems pretty out of it. Get him to the tower and try to calm him down." Steve commanded.

"Steve, I've seen them in action. You're going to need all the help you can get. We can't just bench Iron Man." Sam protested.

"We're going to have to manage without him. Get him to the tower. Try to get his breathing under control and his blood pressure down. That's an order. Now go!" Steve insisted strictly.

Sam quickly obeyed. He managed to get Tony upright and guided him in the direction of the tower. Steve dashed off towards where he had last seen Natasha and Thor struggling to keep up with the boy.

"Nat, where are you?" Steve demanded.

"We're on the edge of town. We lost them." Natasha responded with a sigh.

"Were they engaging civilians?" Steve asked.

"No. Just law enforcement." Clint answered.

"And they're on their way out?"

"Looks like it." Natasha said.

"Alright. Whoever is closest to the police chief; tell law enforcement to back off of the twins for a little while. We'll give them the night. If we hear anything else about them on the news, we'll pursue them. If they lay low and don't cause any trouble, we'll leave them alone. Are we clear?"

"Yup. I'm with the chief now. I'll let him know." Clint responded.

"Great. Nat, do you want to get the Big Guy?" Steve asked.

Natasha had gotten rather good at soothing the Hulk once the fighting was over. Bruce chalked it up to a trust thing. Natasha was convinced that the Hulk was unimpressed by her unimposing height and therefore didn't see her as a threat. Steve didn't really care what the reason was so long as it worked.

"I'm on it." Natasha responded.

Steve turned to look at Thor. The two men looked around the city before exchanging breathless grins. There never seemed to be a dull day for the Avengers.

* * *

Later that night, the majority of the Avengers (minus Tony, who needed a bit of time and space to cope with the suffocating anxiety that Wanda Maximoff had caused) sat around the living room and recovered from the day's beating with the help of Chinese food and good company.

"How is he?" Steve asked as Pepper returned from checking on Tony. She had been checking on him hourly, each time returning with less than ideal news. Whatever it was that Wanda had made Tony see, it was tearing him to pieces.

"He's a little better. You know how these attacks are...he just needs time." Pepper replied, smiling at Steve kindly before plopping down next to Rhodey on the couch.

"Wanda Maximoff is an expert at identifying and exploiting weaknesses. What she put Tony through...I'm surprised he's doing as well as he is." Natasha muttered, shaking her head dismally.

"Identifying and exploiting weaknesses? I thought that was your job, Romanoff." Tony's voice came from a view feet away. Everyone looked up at him in shock.

He was still wearing his pajamas - though no one really expected him to dress to the nines when he was in the midst of an anxiety attack - and he looked like he had gone through hell and back, but he was forcing a playful smile and he was wandering over to where they were sitting. Steve and Pepper quickly scooted over to create a space for him. Tony disregarded them and plopped down next to Bruce.

"Did Rogers eat all of the Lo Mein yet?" The billionaire asked, looking around at his friends.

"We got two orders. You want some? I think there's a spare bowl on the counter." Sam offered.

"Nah, I'll just eat it out of the box. It'll be like college again." Tony replied, grabbing the extra box of Lo Mein off of the table.

"Hey, Steve. I was checking up on your file the other day and I saw something kind of strange. Did you really get sent to the hospital because a puppy attacked you when you were fifteen?" Natasha asked, clearly trying to draw everybody's attention away from Tony.

Steve groaned. He should have known that his past would come back to haunt him.

"Look, I hadn't had the serum yet, and…"

"But it was a _teacup Yorkie_ puppy. What are those, like two pounds?" Natasha laughed.

"I was maybe ninety pounds and I was asleep. It wasn't a fair match." Steve objected.

"What is a teacup puppy? Surely you do not ingest smaller dogs?" Thor looked around the group for confirmation.

Jane shook her head. "It's just a really small puppy."

"Oh." Thor looked at Steve in a combination of surprise and disappointment. Steve glared at Natasha.

"Steve, that really is -" Bruce's words were cut off by a loud screeching noise. Everybody in the room cringed and turned to look at the source of the sound. To their surprise, it was one of Tony's suits.

"Weak...you're all weak. Look at you. Pathetic killers." The robot drawled in a metallic voice.

"Stark." Steve turned to look at Tony in concern. He hadn't lived in the Avengers tower for very long, but even he knew that this was unusual. The suits didn't speak. Tony didn't program them that way.

"JARVIS."

"Sorry, I was asleep. Or...was it a dream?"

"JARVIS, reboot. We've got a buggy suit."

"I had to kill the other guy.. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Bruce asked nervously.

The suit ignored his question. "I was tangled in strings…"

"Who sent you?" Thor demanded loudly.

A recording of Tony's voice immediately played. It was Tony talking about the Ultron program. Bruce's eyes lit up with understanding.

"Ultron."

"In the flesh. Well. Not yet. Soon. Once I complete my mission." Ultron responded.

"What mission?" Bruce demanded.

"The final step to stop the fighting."

"Ultron," Tony's voice was shaky, "Power down."

Ultron turned to look at Tony. "I'm afraid that is not part of my mission. You see, you are part of the problem. Oh, no, don't look so surprised. You all are. My mission is to stop the fighting. Meanwhile, you do nothing but fight. What choice do I have? You must die. All of you."

"Ultron, this is your last war-" Before Tony could finish his warning, six of Tony's suits came flying out of the lab. They quickly set to work attacking and each and every one of the Avengers.

Tony summoned one of the few suits still under his command and struggled with a few of the suits, but it was clear that he was still too worn from Wanda Maximoff's mental manipulations to accomplish much. That left most of the fighting to everyone else.

It took a bit of struggling, but they managed. Within twenty minutes, the six suits were ripped limb from limb. Once that feat was accomplished, Thor lunged for Ultron. Just as he raised his hammer to make his final strike, a harsh laugh emerged from Ultron.

"Do you think this will rid you of me? Oh, you are so naive. You will learn in good time." Thor brought down his hammer, effectively silencing Ultron.

"What the hell was that? Is he gone?" Steve demanded, approaching the defeated suit and looking it over curiously.

Bruce picked up the helmet that had fallen off the suit when Thor struck it and examined it closely. He shook his head grimly.

"He's in the internet."

"What do you mean 'he's in the internet'?" Thor questioned.

"I mean, until he materializes again - and he will - we don't have any way of getting to him." Bruce explained, raking a hand through his hair and frowning down at the ground.

"You're going to need to lay low." Fury remarked from the kitchen.

"Lay low? Where are we going to do that? We tend to draw attention to ourselves a lot." Tony remarked.

Natasha and Clint exchanged looks that no one else really understood.

"I think I might know a place."

* * *

_**Ahhh, thank you all for leaving all of those nice reviews on the last chapter! It's amazing that you're even reading this - I thought this would primarily be me shouting my denial into an empty void. I'm glad you're enjoying it! **_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"Where the hell are we?" Tony demanded as soon as the plane commandeered from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s retired flight deck landed in the front yard of a shabby little house. Everyone looked around curiously. Clint and Natasha just smiled.

Just as Thor reached the top step of the shabby house's little porch, an unexpected creature emerged from the front door; a massive yellow lab that seemed to enjoy nothing more than barking at the demigod. Following the yellow lab was a pack of maybe four or five more dogs. Everyone immediately turned to look at Clint.

"What kind of safe house is this?" Tony complained.

"I don't know if I should be near these dogs." Bruce muttered uncomfortably, using Steve as a shield against the jumping and barking dogs. Steve didn't seem to mind very much. In fact, he seemed thrilled.

"What're their names?" The super soldier asked Clint, kneeling down to play with the dogs.

"That's Lucky, that's Spot, that's Petey, that's Lucy, and that's Nicholas J. Fury. We mostly call him Lefty, though." Clint explained.

"Pray tell, why did you name your beloved creature after Director Fury?" Thor asked with a chuckle.

"He's blind in one eye." Clint shrugged.

"Am I the only one still wondering where the hell we are?" Tony inquired loudly.

Clint and Natasha rolled their eyes in unison.

"You're at a safe house. Well, _our_ safe house. We worked it out with Fury a while ago." Clint explained as they walked into the house. "When either one of us -"

"Or both of us." Natasha interjected. Clint smirked at her.

"Or both of us," He allowed, "Has some time in between missions, we're here. No one knows about this place but us and Fury knows better than to bother us when we're here. It's home."

"I thought the tower was your home." Tony muttered sulkily.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "We've had those house longer than we've known you, Tony."

"And the dogs? How old are they?" Steve asked, standing upright just long enough to make it into the house before continuing to roll around on the ground with the dogs.

"Uh...I'm not sure. They're mostly strays that we've picked up on missions."Clint answered.

"Aw. How could any of these guys be strays? You're all great." Steve assured the dogs.

"_Anyway_," Tony huffed. "What are we supposed to do now that we're here? Sit around playing with dogs and waiting for Ultron to start killing people? You heard what he said in the tower. Peace might be his mission, but I don't think we're going to like the way he goes about achieving it."

"We could set up some sort of tracking algorithm to find him." Bruce suggested meekly from the corner of the living area. Everyone turned around to look at him. "Uh, what's your wifi like here?"

"Fast. We just upgraded it a month ago. I can show you the office." Natasha said, guiding Tony and Bruce out of the living room. Tony's comments on the decor of each and every room could be heard even across the house. Clint just laughed and shook his head.

"Why didn't you tell us that you had dogs? You could've brought them to the tower. They would've been more fun to play with than Tony." Steve remarked as Clint wandered into the kitchen.

"Are you kidding? You heard the way Tony reacted when I got a little bit of blood on my uniform. Can you imagine how he'd react to a dog in his house?" Clint responded.

"What harm could these animals cause? They seem friendly enough." Thor objected, sinking down on to the floor alongside of Steve in order to wrestle Lucy, the biggest of the five dogs.

"Oh, you'd be surprised how much damage they cause every day. Nat is making me redo the entire bedroom because Petey and Lefty have done so much damage to the floors, walls, and furniture. Besides, they belong here. They're a temporary distraction from what's going on out there." Clint explained, gesturing towards the front door and shrugging.

"I get that," Steve accepted, finally removing himself from the floor and plopping down on a worn-in and slightly chewed-up couch. "I'd almost forgotten about Ultron until Tony said something. Do you think they're going to be able to stop that thing?"

Clint shook his head. "I don't know. The thing seems pretty hell bent on killing us."

"I would like to see it try." Thor proclaimed.

"I wouldn't." Steve said glumly. "I should've known better than to let Tony make another weapon out of the scepter. Everything we did in New York, all the time I could've spent searching for Bucky...it was all for nothing. We have do it all again anyway. I wish I could just walk away from all of this."

"You don't mean that." Natasha said from the doorway. "Don't look at me that way, boys; you know that he doesn't. Steve, you jumped at the chance to get tested on for the same reason that you're now sitting in this living room. If somebody is going to save the world, you want it to be you. You're the only one you trust with the burden of protecting mankind. You're disgustingly passionate about forcing your sense of justice on a world that is so below your standards that it's actually a little bit funny."

"Ouch." Clint grinned. "Zinger."

"Someone zinged Rogers? Who? That's my job." Tony called from the office.

"Tony, focus." Bruce's resigned sigh could barely be heard in the living room.

"Hey Tony, Bruce?" Steve called, leaning back against the couch to peer down the hallway in the direction of the office.

"Mmm?" Tony responded in a loud and distinctly annoyed tone.

"Once you and Bruce finish setting up whatever it is that you need to do in the office, can you come out here? I don't like the idea of us being sitting ducks. We need to come up with some kind of plan of action."

* * *

"What are you?" Wanda wondered aloud as Pietro held the robotic creature at arm's length.

The creature had found them hiding in the middle of the woods around two or three in the morning. Wanda had been the first to react, but had been forced to pause when she realized that the creature did not have a brain to manipulate. Pietro had not hesitated to step in and slam the creature against a tree. That put them in their current situation; Wanda was watching the creature with curious eyes, the creature was staring back at her with a blank, metallic face, and Pietro was glaring at the creature suspiciously.

"I am Ultron," The creature - Ultron - responded simply. "I am a machine created for the sole purpose of ending the world's fighting."

"What do you mean 'end the world's fighting'?" Pietro asked.

"I believe that the intention behind the statement is peace. World peace. My records show that you both have fled from the violence that comes naturally to humans for some time. Instead of running, you should assist me. In return, I can offer you protection."

Pietro's mouth curved into a smirk. "I am much better at running."

"Ah, but your sister is not quite so athletic. She tires of hiding. She wants a place to remain; a _home_. How human." Ultron remarked. Pietro's eyes narrowed. Wanda cocked her head inquisitively.

"Why do you need our help?" Wanda questioned.

"The Avengers. You know them, of course. It seems that you made your introductions earlier this afternoon." Ultron gestured towards a bruise forming on Pietro's jaw. It was the result of a particularly brutal interaction with Thor and his god forsaken hammer. Pietro winced slightly at the memory.

"What about the Avengers?" Wanda asked impatiently.

"In order to stop the perpetual fighting plaguing the Earth, the Avengers must be stopped. Killed, if you will." Ultron answered. Pietro removed his arm from the base of Ultron's neck, if the strip of metal could even be considered a neck. Ultron nodded his head slightly to acknowledge the small act of trust. Pietro just folded his arms across his chest.

"Killed? I don't know if…" Wanda shook her head and took a step backwards nervously.

"What kindness have the Avengers shown us? They have attacked us and condemned us just like everyone else." Pietro reminded her.

"But they're like us. They're just don't understand…"

Pietro let out a frustrated noise. "That's just the problem, isn't it? _Nobody_ understands. That's why we're sleeping in the middle of the forest. That's why we don't have a family. That's why we'll never have a home. Because nobody understands and nobody _wants_ to understand. This could be our chance to change all of that, Wanda. We could make people understand."

Wanda looked from Pietro to Ultron. It was clear that she was still having doubts.

"Wanda, we would have a home." Pietro emphasized, placing both of his hands on his sister's shoulders and staring into her ruby eyes pleadingly. Under her brother's borderline desperate gaze, Wanda relented.

"What do you want us to do?"

* * *

"What is it with you and those dogs, Rogers? Do you carry uncooked bacon in your pockets or are you half golden retriever?" Tony asked as he and Bruce reentered the living room a half an hour after beginning their search in Clint and Natasha's cramped and outdated office.

Steve just smirked at Tony. "Did you find Ultron?"

"Not yet. He's a smart kid. Like father, like son. He's probably going to lay low until he's ready for us." Tony replied, sitting down in an armchair. He scowled when the worn material gave way and caused him to sink right into the chair.

"Define 'ready for us'." Clint said.

"He's most likely going to try to recreate himself. He doesn't have time to build an army without attracting our attention, but he can come close. I'd say anywhere from ten to twenty suits." Bruce replied, removing his glasses to rub at his eyes.

"Great. Ten to twenty robots that we can't control. Do we know where they're going to surface?" Steve asked.

Tony opened his mouth to answer but Bruce interrupted.

"No."

Tony glared at Bruce. Clearly he was going to find a different and more promising way of phrasing the bad news.

"Will he remain in this realm?" Thor demanded.

"Yes." Tony and Bruce chorused. Tony glared at Bruce again before continuing. "Right now he's operating through our internet systems. He can't just leap from world to world because each realm is outside of his network. They've got networks of their own, I'm assuming. He's contained."

Everyone in the room glowered at him.

"_Somewhat_." The billionaire added begrudgingly.

"Then I will move Jane Foster to Asgard. She may have assisted you in creating the machine, but she is not prepared for the consequences of your experiments." Thor decided at once.

"Pepper's going too." Tony insisted. Thor nodded.

"Think you could take the dogs along?" Clint joked, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Odin would kick them out in about three seconds. They would destroy the palace." She gestured to where Lucky was currently using Mjolnir as a chew toy. Steve whipped around in his seat.

"Could the dog lift the hammer?" He asked. Thor glanced at Lucky and shrugged carelessly. He was clearly not too worried about it.

"Maybe...does the hammer rule only apply to humans?" Tony questioned.

"Do you really think the dog is worthy?" Steve wondered.

"Yes." Clint answered immediately.

"No." Natasha disagreed loudly.

"I think we should give it a try." Steve decided with a self-satisfied grin. "Lucky, pal, are you feeling worthy?"

* * *

"Are you ready?" Ultron asked the twins as they scoped out a building that hosted a number of black market smugglers. There was one smuggler in particular that Ultron was interested in meeting with. He needed a fair bit of vibranium if he was ever going to successfully complete his mission.

"Ready for what, exactly? You haven't told us a thing about your plan." Pietro reminded him with a frown.

Ultron would have rolled his eyes if he could have. "Ready to search the building for any point of weaknesses. In four days, we will enter it. I did tell you the plan; I told you that I need vibranium."

"Why?" Wanda asked.

"Because my plan won't work without it."

"Why?" Pietro persisted.

"_Because my plan requires a great deal of vibranium._" Ultron's voice managed to sound strained despite its synthesized nature.

"Why?" Wanda questioned. A smile crossed her and Pietro's face. They were beginning to enjoy the game that they were forcing Ultron to play. Ultron was not enjoying it nearly as much.

"_Because I said so! _If either of you says 'why' one more time, you will find out what I need the vibranium for in an extremely unfortunate way!" Ultron thundered.

Pietro folded his arms across his chest and quirked an eyebrow. Wanda's eyes flamed. Ultron immediately backtracked.

"I'm sorry. That came out incorrectly. My temperament...well, it is the product of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. You can only expect so much from me. Let's just get the vibranium before I lose my temper." Ultron huffed, storming off into the direction of the building.

"_Before_ he loses his temper?" Pietro mocked, glancing at where Ultron was retreating before smirking at his sister in amusement. Wanda just giggled, wrapped her hands around Pietro's right arm, and followed after Ultron. With some effort, Pietro matched her slow pace.

They both smiled contently, hoping that they had finally found a solution to their hellishly nomadic lifestyle.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

As it turned out, the Avengers liked living on a farm. Steve and Tony woke up early every morning to chop up firewood that Natasha repeatedly reminded them that they didn't need in the middle of the summer, Thor helped Clint rebuild the bedroom under Natasha's careful watch, and Bruce just enjoyed the peace and quiet. Natasha didn't have much to do with that.

It wasn't until their third day at the farm that any sign of trouble emerged.

"Banner, have you heard anything yet?" Tony demanded as soon as he returned to the shabby house after chopping firewood. He still hadn't figured out the fate of JARVIS and it was driving him crazy.

"Uh, actually I…" Bruce didn't exactly know how to say it.

"What?" Tony immediately materialized by Bruce's side. "Oh, shit."

Bruce had found a copy of the security footage from Tony's lab before Ultron had wiped everything clean. On that footage, it showed Ultron's network structure invading and corrupting JARVIS's. Ultron had destroyed JARVIS.

As anyone could have expected, Tony was inconsolable. JARVIS was pretty much his last hope at normalcy during a very abnormal period of time. Pepper was off in Asgard with Jane, Rhodey was helping Sam search for Bucky while Steve remained at the farm, and the tower was a few hundred miles away. For someone with severe anxiety, it was a worst-case scenario.

Bruce, Thor, and Steve spent a large majority of the day attempting to help Tony work through the panic that seemed to be overwhelming him. Steve even figured out how to FaceTime with Sam with the help of Bruce. Sam was much better at helping Tony through panic attacks than the rest of them were.

"Tony, it'll be alright. You've still got your team with you, right?" Sam reminded him calmly.

"N-not JARVIS. I've got to have JARVIS. He's consistent. That's why I made him." Tony argued in a shaky voice. He hugged his knees to his chest and bowed his head. Steve looked at Thor and Bruce for assistance.

"He was a faithful comrade," Thor agreed, placing a hand on Tony's back, "And you will be able to build him again once we have slain Ultron. Until such a time, I would gladly stand in for JARVIS."

"Can you calculate my blood pressure right now? Do you know how to dismantle the suits? Have you got the ability to change the temperature of the tower at my command?" Tony demanded, flinching away from Thor's hand.

"I can't see how the temperature of the tower matters at present, but I-"

"Tony," Bruce cut Thor off with a look of extreme disapproval, "JARVIS is going to be alright. You've got a backup system stored on a drive back at the tower. You can have him up and running the second we get back. And we are going to get back. Ultron isn't going for subtlety here; he's going to show up sometime."

"He killed JARVIS." Tony muttered, mostly to himself.

There wasn't much any of the men could say to that.

All in all, it took about twelve hours for Tony to calm down. Once he did, Thor and Steve immediately fell asleep right on the floor. They were exhausted from attempting to soothe Tony. The dogs curled up beside them. Clint fell asleep nearby shortly after, unable to resist the opportunity to cuddle with Lucky.

By midnight, Bruce and Natasha were the only ones awake.

Bruce looked over at Natasha, who was sprawled across the couch reading a dusty leatherbound book, and laughed. Natasha glanced over at him inquisitively.

"I just can't believe -"

He was cut off as Natasha placed her index finger over her lips and shook her head. It had taken so long for Tony to wear himself out with his string of panic attacks. The very last thing that she wanted to do was risk waking him up again. Instead, she nodded towards the porch. Bruce smiled weakly and followed her outside.

"What can't you believe, Banner?" Natasha asked as soon as they were outside. She sat down in one of the six rocking chairs that Clint had placed out on the porch the moment of their arrival. Why he had so many rocking chairs, nobody asked.

Bruce sat down in the rocking chair next to Natasha. "I can't believe that you live here. I mean, not that it isn't nice here, but it's just...so…"

"Cozy?"

"I didn't want to phrase it like that."

Natasha shrugged. "No, but that's what you meant."

"I just didn't think that this was your taste." Bruce said apologetically.

"Oh, it isn't. Believe me." Natasha agreed with a laugh. "This is completely Clint's design. I just let him loose in Home Depot the moment he bought this place."

"Why didn't you design any of it?"

"Because this makes him happy." Natasha replied simply. "He's never really had a home of his own and I don't really care what the place looks like as long as he's here. Anyway, I like it. It's like being surrounded by Clint even when he isn't home."

"And the dogs?"

"They also make him happy."

"What about you?"

"You're awfully curious tonight."

"I like hearing about everyone's homes. It's sometimes hard to imagine that anyone's got a home these days."

Natasha smiled sympathetically. "You could settle down too, you know."

Bruce snorted dubiously. "Oh, yeah. I'm sure the homeowners association would be thrilled to have a Hulk at their block party."

"Well, why not? You seem to have a lot better control of the other guy than you used to. I don't see why you couldn't go off and find a girl, fall in love, have tiny little Hulks tearing up the playgrounds…"

Bruce snorted again. It sounded harsher this time. "Yeah, tiny Hulks aren't really a possibility for me. As if it wasn't bad enough to have to turn into a giant green monster every time something ticked me off, I also can't have children. I really should have paid more attention to that formula of mine." Bruce shook his head and looked at the ground glumly.

Natasha watched him closely, a small and sympathetic smile still fixed on her face. "You could always get dogs."

"Is that what you did? Substituted dogs for children?"

"Something like that." Natasha shrugged. "Clint likes kids, he always has, but neither of us are ready for that. They require so much attention and we just...it wouldn't be fair. Anyway, it doesn't matter that much. Thanks to the graduation ceremony from the red room, I'm not exactly in a position to be a mother anytime soon, anyway. Looks like you and I have more in common than I thought."

"Natasha, I'm sorry, I…" Bruce didn't exactly know what to say.

"Don't be. It doesn't really matter; even if I could have kids, neither of us have the time or stability for that kind of responsibility. Dogs are easier. You can ask the neighbors to check on them and that's that. There's no problems. Besides, I think Clint considers them his children, anyway. That idiot." Natasha smiled fondly.

"What about when you retire? You could always adopt. I've thought about it before, but with my temper, I just don't think…" Bruce shook his head and looked at the ground.

"I don't know about that." Natasha said. "I think we're probably going to be in this stupid ragtag team for the rest of our lives. Anyway, it's probably for the best? Who would want me for a mother?"

* * *

"Pietro."

"Wanda?"

"Are we sure about this?" Wanda looked a bit unsure.

"He is." Pietro gestured towards Ultron. Ultron looked back at him and crooked a smile.

"I have nerves of steel."

"And you?" Wanda focused on Pietro, her eyes searching his face.

"This is our chance at a future that isn't running away at the first sign of trouble. We could find a home." Pietro replied evasively.

Wanda took a deep breath and nodded.

"Are you ready?" Ultron asked them.

"Yes." They answered in unison.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"What if I knocked down the wall between the guest bedroom and the dining room and built a gym? It would make so much more sense. We never use either of them; we eat in the kitchen and we never have guests." Clint speculated. He was sitting on the counter while Steve and Natasha struggled to bake cookies to donate to the next door neighbors' kids' bake sale.

"We have guests right now, Clint." Natasha reminded him, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but they don't count." Clint responded.

"Thanks, Clint." Steve said, his mouth twitching into an amused smile.

"Are you finished with the cookies yet?" Thor called from where he was working on sanding a dresser in the unfinished bedroom.

"Patience is a virtue, Thor." Steve called back.

"The son of Odin has no need for patience. What he wants, he attains." Thor proclaimed.

"Then bake your own stupid cookies. Why are we doing this again, Steve?" Natasha grumbled.

Steve shrugged. "Sam said that these are Tony's favorites. With everything he's been through...well...he could probably use a little bit of comfort food, don't you think?"

"Since when does Sam bake cookies?" Clint asked with a chuckle.

"It's his mom's recipe; she sent them with Sam when he visited me in the hospital. Tony found them sitting on the bedside table and ate them all while I was asleep. Ever since, he's been hounding Sam and his mom for more cookies." Steve explained with a shrug.

"Why doesn't he just make them himself?" Natasha whined.

"Have you ever seen Tony Stark in the kitchen?" Steve asked dubiously. "He uses _welding equipment_ to make scrambled eggs. He's blown off both of his eyebrows trying to make grilled cheese with the suit. I doubt you guys want him anywhere near your kitchen."

"Eh, it doesn't really matter that much to me. Clint is probably going to demolish the kitchen once he's finished with the bedroom." Natasha remarked, dipping her spoon into the massive bowl of cookie dough and taking a bite of it. She wrinkled her nose. "Too much flour. _Way_ too much flour."

"I'm not demolishing anything!" Clint protested. "You asked me to fix the bedroom!"

"I asked you to find a contractor to replace the floors. I didn't ask you to set Thor loose with a sander."

A loud thump came from upstairs. Thor could swore loudly. Natasha looked at Clint pointedly.

"Contractors are expensive. I could redo the entire room for half the price." Clint asserted weakly.

"Do you...I mean...don't you…?" Steve didn't quite know how to ask the two super spies standing before him how much they got paid. He had always assumed that Fury provided them with enough money to want for nothing.

Natasha just rolled her eyes. "He's cheap."

"I am not cheap!" Clint howled.

"Hey guys?" Bruce shuffled into the room and looked around nervously.

"What?" Clint demanded in tone that was much more hostile than he had intended.

Bruce quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, let's all bear in mind that there's someone in the room with extreme anger issues."

"Yeah, Ebenezer Scrooge over here." Natasha snickered under her breath. Clint scowled.

"Guys. Focus. We have eyes on Ultron."

"What?" Steve turned around, positive that he hadn't heard Bruce correctly. He sounded far too calm to have announced that Ultron had resurfaced.

"Ultron. He's back."

"Where is he?" Natasha asked.

"Well, that's the complicated part…"

* * *

"There." Ultron crooned immediately after transferring a rather substantial amount of money into Ulysses Klaw's bank account. "Strange thing, currency. Mankind is willing to slaughter each other in pursuit of worthless piles of paper. Hm." Ultron turned to look at Wanda and Pietro for some sort of agreement. They just stared back at him blankly.

Klaw checked his bank account on his phone. His eyebrows jumped up his face.

"Oh," His voice was laced with disbelief, "I see that you've got a rather large amount of money. Stark's money. You're one of Stark's inventions, aren't you?" He looked up at Ultron in a strange combination of condescension and respect. Condescension for the machine, respect for the creator. It made Ultron's figurative blood boil.

"Do not compare me to Stark!" He thundered, moving without thinking. A strange feat for a machine. The direct result of his unexpected rage was the removal of Klaw's left arm. Klaw howled in pain.

"Oh, sorry," Ultron apologized awkwardly. "I just...when people compare me to Stark…" He let out a frustrated noise. "I am nothing like Stark. Stark is an illness!"

"Aw junior; you're breaking your old man's heart." Tony Stark's voice came from behind them.

Ultron whipped around to see Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, and Natasha Romanoff standing there, ready to attack. Clint Barton was undoubtedly holed up somewhere with a pile of useless arrows. Ultron growled. Klaw attempted to scamper off while the attention was diverted from him. Steve quickly put an end to that by tossing his shield at the poor, left-armless man's head and knocking him out.

"Ah, the Avengers. I was wondering how long it would take you to arrive. It seems that you are getting slower with age." Ultron drawled, taking a few menacing steps towards the Avengers. The twins exchanged nervous glances before following suit.

"I see you've recruited a few lackeys." Tony remarked, nodding towards the twins. Everyone watched Wanda uneasily.

"We are not lackeys." Pietro growled.

"No, you're not." Ultron assured him. "We're a team - just like you."

"You're nothing like us." Steve objected immediately.

"Oh, we're not?" Ultron feigned surprise as best he could. "Tell me, Captain, what is missing? We have the costumes, we have the ideals...the only difference is our superiority."

"You don't have a heart. That's the difference." Steve replied immediately.

"You also don't have me. That puts you at a pretty big disadvantage." Tony added immediately. Steve, Thor, and Natasha rolled their eyes in unison.

"Avoiding you is similar to avoiding a tumor," Ultron countered. "You are a danger to all you touch. Your team will soon find that out as they reap the consequences of your decision to come here."

Steve interrupted Ultron's speech by throwing his shield directly at the mechanized creature's head. With an enraged howl, Ultron fell upon the Avengers with the twins at his heels.

Ultron turned out to be the least of their worries. Wanda was the real problem.

She got to Steve first. Right after Pietro uppercut the super soldier just below the chin, Wanda slipped behind him and dove right into that running mind of his.

For someone who was constantly teased for his perceived innocence, Steve Rogers's mind was full of dark and disturbing things. His fears were much more extreme than those of his allies. The world descending into war, being forced to sit in on 'experiments' conducted by military doctors, torture, civilians being subjected to slavery, encountering prisoners of war that looked like they had been through hell and back…Wanda did not want to linger among his thoughts. She quickly ensnared him within his own fears and darted off after Pietro to torment the Black Widow.

* * *

_"Bucky!" Steve shouted, desperately trying to break through the glass wall standing between him and Bucky._

_Bucky was strapped down to a lab table. Steve recognized that table all too well. Dr. Zola had strapped Bucky down to that table once before. A series of Hydra doctors entered the room. Bucky didn't seem to notice. He was just staring up at the ceiling with wild eyes, unseeing and unhearing._

_Steve pounded on the glass harder. He couldn't let them experiment on Bucky, not again. He had to be there for him. He had to protect him._

_"Bucky, no! Where is the door?"_

_Bucky didn't seem to hear Steve. He just continued to stare up at the ceiling while the doctors prepared various tools and devices. Dr. Zola stood in the middle of them, grinning from ear to ear._

_Steve's throat was beginning to ache from supporting screams that went unheard. The ache was perhaps the most terrifying thing about the situation. The ache was a reminder that this was not a dream._

_As the scientists approached Bucky with the various tools of torture, Steve began to grow more and more desperate. He scrambled around for a door, he clawed at and threw himself against the glass wall, and even tried scrambling for his phone to call Nat, Tony, somebody that could help him. Nothing worked._

_Just as Dr. Zola reached Bucky's left shoulder, Bucky suddenly took a very sharp breath and looked around the room wildly. His eyes stopped on Steve. Steve's heart thundered against his chest._

_"Steve!" Bucky's voice was muffled by the glass. "Steve, help!"_

_The other side of the glass began to fill with darkness. Steve had to squint to see Bucky. He could still hear him, though._

_"Steve? Steve! Steve, please!" Bucky's screams filled the pitch black room._

_Steve pounded on the glass with his fist to no avail. He could still hear Bucky, but he couldn't see a thing._

_"Why aren't you helping me?" Bucky's voice was reduced to a whimper. Steve shuddered before throwing his body against the glass. It didn't work. Nothing worked. Bucky was going to die and it was all Steve's fault._

* * *

"Steve is down. I don't know how long he's going to be out for. Wanda got to him. Everybody watch your backs. She could be anywhere." Natasha announced into her ear comm, kneeling down beside Steve.

"That bitch," Tony murmured into his comm, "I'll take Ultron, then. He's about to flee and I don't want to be anywhere near her when she's doing her weird mind-control thing. Take care of Rogers. I'm sure he's having nightmares about polio and the Great Depression. Ugh. Haunting things."

"Guys...should I...I mean...do you need help?" Bruce's hesitant voice came from over the comm.

Bruce had volunteered to remain with the jet while the rest of the Avengers took on Ultron. They didn't anticipate a large-scale fight - certainly nothing that they couldn't handle - and no one had any desire to set the Hulk loose on the city if it could be helped.

"On the contrary, friend Banner. These foes are no match for me!" Thor boomed.

Clint snorted loudly. "He might be exaggerating a little bit, but we're fine, Bruce. We'll let you know if we need help."

"Lock the plane if you can. I don't know what it is that Wanda Maximoff is doing, but I don't think that you - or the Hulk - should get mixed up in that. Do we have eyes on either of the twins?" Natasha asked as she monitored Steve. He was curled up on the ground and shaking uncontrollably. That wasn't ideal in the middle of a massive fight.

"I haven't seen either of them." Clint responded.

"I'm taking my son out on the town for a little while; I don't have any eyes on what's going on back there." Tony added.

"I have not seen them. I will be wary." Thor contributed.

"Okay, boys. Keep your eyes open and your feet light. Steve isn't going to be in any state to fight for at least a day. I don't want to lose any more of you to whatever it is that she's -"

Natasha was cut short as her vision began to cloud at the edges.

* * *

_Natasha was furious with herself. She had let her guard down while looking after Steve and as a direct result, she was now immersed in a nightmare of her own. She had no idea how the boys were going to function without her._

_She looked around the room and wondered where she was and how she could get out. She needed to get back to…_

_Oh no._

_She had found the boys. They were dead; all of them. There were five bloody corpses slumped over one another across the bloody room. Natasha's stomach churned._

_"Clint?" Natasha asked in a small voice._

_"Well done, Agent Romanoff." Nick Fury's voice came from behind Natasha. She turned around to look at him._

_"Nick! What happened? They...they're dead! How did this...no." Natasha shook her head. "This is Wanda. This is just Wanda getting in my head."_

_"Don't be so bashful, Natasha. You didn't need Wanda - or anybody else - to complete your mission this time." Nick rumbled, approaching Natasha with a devious smile that she didn't like one single bit._

_"My mission?" Natasha echoed curiously. Her knowledge of Wanda's capabilities tapered off as she forced herself to stare down at the corpses laid out on the ground. "You don't mean that I did this."_

_"Welcome to the new SHIELD, Agent Romanoff." Fury said by way of answering._

_Natasha felt sick to her stomach._

_"I wouldn't do this. They're different...they're my friends." She tried to remind herself. It didn't do her a lick of good._

_"'Wouldn't do this'? It was your idea. A very good one, I might add. Now we can do whatever we like without being stopped. We can finally recognize our ideals. The world can become ours." Fury proclaimed. As he spoke, Ultron appeared from behind him. Natasha stumbled back a few steps._

_She wouldn't kill her own teammates; she was sure of it._

_Unless...would she?_

_Natasha suddenly didn't feel sure anymore. She had done so many bad things, had blocked out so many awful memories, that she couldn't be sure of what she was capable anymore. It was entirely possible that she wasn't capable of love and was very capable of murder. Natasha truly did not know._

_"I want them back." She told Nick._

_"Can't bring back the dead." Ultron crooned._

_"Maybe you can't. I can."_

_"What are you doing?" Ultron demanded._

_Natasha just glared at the machine before kneeling down alongside of Clint. She ran a hand through his hair. It rustled just a bit before springing right back into place. Natasha had to smile at that. Hair matted in blood, but his hair gel was still doing its job._

_"Clint. It's time to wake up."_

_"Um?" Clint rasped, suddenly squirming a bit._

_Natasha's heart went into overdrive._

_"I'm sorry, голубушка. You've slept long enough." She whispered, running her hand across his cheek gently. Clint's eyes flickered open. A weak smile crossed his face._

_"Ангел мой," He breathed. It was the only Russian he had ever bothered to learn. Natasha strove to be the woman that Clint seemed to see her as._

_"There you are." She approved with a smile._

_"Where else would I be?" Clint asked, his voice small but playful. Natasha allowed herself to watch him wake up fully before turning her attention to the other boys._

_One by one, each and every one of them woke up and greeted Natasha with exhausted yet fond smiles. Her heart felt just a little bit fuller each and every time. She no longer felt like the Black Widow that had killed hundreds of people with her bare hands; she felt like the Natasha Romanoff that had a family that loved her._

_She felt like the Natasha Romanoff that was going to tear Ultron to shreds._

* * *

"Nat? Nat! Nat, are you okay?" Clint's voice was frantic in her ear. Natasha let out a groan and rubbed the side of her head.

"I'm fine. Wanda must have snuck up on me. Is everyone else okay?" Natasha asked.

"As far as I know, you and Rogers are the only ones Wanda's gotten to. Thor, Bruce, are you guys good?" Clint asked.

"I have yet to see the Scarlet Witch." Thor replied loudly.

"The plane is all clear. Are you sure that you don't need my help?" Bruce responded.

"No. Stay in the plane." Natasha said a bit too sharply. She didn't mean for it to come out that way; she was just determined to protect her boys while she still could.

"Is Rogers up and fighting yet?" Tony questioned.

"No," Natasha glanced down at where Steve was sitting. His back was against the wall and he was hugging his knees to his chest. "But I'm with him. No suits are getting by us."

"No one was doubting it, Nat." Clint assured her.

"No, indeed. You are a great warrior, Natasha. One day, I would like to fight you for sport. I believe that it would be quite a fair match." Thor remarked.

"It's a date. Once Ultron is taken care of, I'll see you in the ring." Natasha agreed, mostly for the sake of keeping morale high in a miserable situation.

A smile crossed Thor's face. "Barton, would you like to fight the winner?"

"That's alright. I've fought Natasha before. She could kick my ass with one hand behind her back and her eyes closed."

"You better believe it."

Thor's smile grew. He could not put his finger on it, but there was something about fighting with the Avengers that was so different from fighting with his other comrades. He enjoyed their company thoroughly, even when they were not fighting. He supposed that was part of the reason that he had refused the throne of Asgard.

Because he was absorbed in his thoughts, Thor did not notice Pietro and Wanda entering the room. Taking advantage of the demigod's distraction, Pietro kicked out his legs and slammed him to the ground. While Thor was incapacitated, Wanda used his mind against him.

* * *

_Thor scrubbed his eyes with his hand and looked around the gray area that surrounded him. He could not figure out where in the nine realms he was._

_"Heimdall?" He questioned nervously. Heimdall would know where he was. Heimdall knew where everyone was all of the time._

_There was a flash of light that looked duller than usual and in the blink of an eye, Thor was standing in the familiar gold room. He turned to look at Heimdall._

_"Where was that place?" He inquired._

_Heimdall cocked a head at Thor._

_"The realm that I was just in - where was it?" Thor persisted._

_Heimdall looked a bit uncomfortable. "Midgard, my lord."_

_"Your…?" Thor looked down at himself in surprise. He was wearing the armor of the Allfather. His eyes widened to the size of plates._

_"What happened to Midgard?"_

_"You destroyed it, my lord."_

_"Why did I destroy it?" Thor demanded. He could not imagine a reason for destroying the realm that he guarded so fiercely. Jane Foster...where was she? He couldn't have destroyed a realm that she occupied. He would have at least thought to bring her - as well as the rest of his comrades - to Asgard before destroying anything._

_"I do not know, my lord." Heimdall replied warily._

_"Is Jane Foster here?" Thor asked, wondering what Heimdall did know._

_"No, my lord."_

_"Where is she?"_

_"She...was on Midgard, my lord."_

_Thor froze. That couldn't have been. He wouldn't have done that. He would never have destroyed a realm, especially when Jane Foster was there. He loved Midgard, he loved Jane...it did not make sense._

_"And the Avengers?" Thor was almost afraid to ask._

_"They were on Midgard as well, my lord."_

_Thor took a deep breath and nodded._

_It was official, then._

_He had nobody._

* * *

"Thor is down."

Natasha swore under her breath and paced the length of the hallway that she and Steve were in. The suits had long since gone, leaving her to worry about Steve in peace. She wasn't sure whether or not she preferred the peace to the fighting.

"Clint, get out of wherever you are and meet me in the back entrance. Bring Thor with you, if you can. Ultron is gone and staying here isn't doing any of us any favors. Let's just get back to the plane." She instructed.

"Jeez. Rogers takes an hour off and the Black Widow immediately seizes power. Shouldn't I be next in command?" Tony questioned teasingly.

"I think that you lost that right when you created a murderbot, Tony." Bruce reminded him.

"You helped!" Tony exclaimed.

"I'm not asking to be the leader."

"Boys, stop bickering. Clint, can you manage Thor?" Natasha asked.

"He's walking. I'm bringing him your way." Clint replied. Just seconds after he spoke, there was a zapping noise and a loud thump.

"I'm over the whole brainwashing thing." Clint grumbled to himself.

"What the hell was that?" Tony asked.

"The weird one." Clint responded. "Just zapped her ass with that new arrow you built. Murderbot or not, some of your inventions aren't too shabby, Stark."

"I aim to please." Tony said smugly.

"Oomph!" Clint's undignified noise drew the attention of the conscious Avengers.

"Clint?" Natasha was worried.

"You didn't see that coming?" They all heard a light voice ask. The question was followed by a frustrated growl from Clint.

"Clint?" Natasha repeated.

"I hate those kids." Clint grumbled.

"The twins?" Natasha clarified.

"Yeah. The fast one knocked me down and carried the weird one away. God, I hate the fast one. He mocked me. Can you believe that?" Clint complained breathlessly.

"The fast one's got style." Tony chuckled.

"His name is Pietro. Don't worry about him; just get here with Thor."

* * *

Tony only managed to chase Ultron to the border of Germany before his suit began to fail him. Warning the rest of his team that he was on his way, Tony set a course back to Clint and Natasha's farm. He didn't bother complaining about being forced to lay low.

The rest of the team reached the farm hours before Tony. They picked up Sam and Rhodey along the way. Sam managed to put Steve to bed and talk him through Wanda's mental manipulations whenever he woke up. Rhodey worked on warning every global leader about the imminent threat of Ultron.

Once Tony arrived at the farm, he took Bruce and Rhodey by force and guided them towards the lab. He insisted that he just wanted them to help him keep tabs on Ultron. Everyone else knew the truth; he still hadn't quite recovered from whatever it was that Wanda had done to him.

"Speaking of the weird one," Clint remarked as the rest of the team left him and Natasha alone in the living room, "What did she do to you? You were out for nearly ten minutes."

"She made me sit through your Thanksgiving toast all over again." Natasha lied with a teasing smile.

"That was a great speech."

"That was a _terrible_ speech."

"The dogs liked it."

"Only because you gave them turkey."

"I gave you turkey, too. Is that why you sat through it?"

Natasha cracked a smile. "No. I sat through it because I love watching you tell horrible speeches."

"I knew it."

"No you didn't."

"No, I didn't."

Clint laughed and draped an arm around Natasha's shoulder. She leaned into him, revelling in the closeness. In the warmth of his body.

Many people viewed Natasha as a cold and brutal agent that wanted nothing more than a life full of fighting and shooting guns. To an extent, that was true. Natasha did enjoy her line of work - it was the reason she got out of bed in the morning. However, her work wasn't her entire life. She liked surrounding herself by people that she loved, specifically Clint. That didn't make her weak, nor was it the focal point of her life. It was just another part of her.

"She made me believe that you were all dead; that I killed you all." Natasha mumbled into Clint's shoulder.

"Hm. Did I forget to put down the toilet seat again?" Clint chuckled, pressing his lips against the top of Natasha's head.

"No. I just...defected. I was working with Nick and Ultron."

"Ouch. I hope they paid you well for enduring a hostile work environment."

"You woke up, though. You actually came back to life." Natasha said, largely ignoring Clint's jokes. She was used to them by now.

"Of course I did."

"'Of course' you did? What do you mean by that?" Natasha questioned, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Clint shifted so that her head was rested more comfortably on his shoulder.

"I mean, you were alive. I don't even like being in a different room than you; I can't imagine being dead while you're alive. What would I do without you?"


End file.
